In a report released by the European Commission regarding the assessment of the Thematic Strategy on the Prevention and Recycling of Waste, introduced in 2005, European countries showed both progress and room for improvement. The document shows that annual waste generation in the EU-27 decreased by 10% between 2006 and 2008, with France, Sweden, Romania and Poland leading the list of best performers. These four countries might also be responsible for the overall figures as in many EU countries waste generation is still increasing or at best stabilising. Although some progress can still be made regarding quantitative waste prevention, waste recycling in the EU has increased, reaching 38% in 2008 (plus 5% compared to 2005 and 18 % compared to 1995) and so has energy recovery from waste. Recycling also represents an economic opportunity, with scrap now contributing between 40% and 56% of input into EU bulk metal production. Nevertheless, EU’s recycling of specific metals which are essential for some key applications remains below what would be needed. Improved waste management has helped decreased the generation of GHG emission related to waste, with direct GHG emissions from the waste sector in the EU- 27 decreasing by more than 30% between 1995 and 2007. Projections of future trends in waste generation and treatment indicate that in a scenario in which no additional policies are implemented, waste generation is expected to increase by 7% from 2008 to 2020. On the other hand, the full implementation of existing policies will lead to increased recycling from 40% in 2008 to 49% in 2020. The report finds that marked differences exist across member states, which cannot be reduced unless specific care is paid to less efficient member states, in particular regarding national inspection. The overall appraisal of the policy shows that it has helped improving the standards of the waste sector, but that further action is needed to ensure that the positive effects are not offset by the projected increase in waste generation.

The report can be downloaded from http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/pdf/Progess%20report.pdf

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